Puerto Rico's economy has been shrinking since 2006 and suffers from a dwindling population and high unemployment

The government of Puerto Rico has asked its citizens to send in their ideas on how to revive the economy.

The chief of staff of the Caribbean island, Ingrid Vila, said Puerto Ricans could submit "specific and viable" proposals on a government website.

Ms Vila said she welcomed ideas on how to prevent the exodus of skilled workers and how to tackle the large informal economy, among other issues.

She said more than 450,000 people had left Puerto Rico in the past decade.

The US territory has been in a recession since 2006.

Official figures put the unemployment rate at 15.2%.

Online platform

"We have agreed to open a wider process of public participation, calling on the whole country to submit ideas," Ms Vila told a news conference in the capital, San Juan.

"To achieve this, we have created an online platform that will receive a greater number of proposals," she added.

The government has set up a committee to evaluate any proposal received to "identify and recommend those that best meet the criteria, including feasibility, equality, social justice, sustainability and benefit to the greatest diversity of interests in the country".

Some ideas that were submitted shortly after the website was launched include proposals to build affordable housing and attract foreign investment.

However, there were also calls to scrap a public television channel and to legalise marijuana.

According to official figures, Puerto Rico's labour force participation rate is 41%, compared to 63% in the United States, and the informal economy contributes to about 30% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The self-governing US territory has a population of less than four million.

The mayor of San Cristóbal, Venezuela, Daniel Ceballos, appeared at a rally on Tuesday. European Pressphoto Agency

CARACAS, Venezuela—Venezuela's secret police arrested the mayor of an opposition bastion on Wednesday as President Nicolás Maduro's administration extended a crackdown on protests that have shaken the oil-rich country for six weeks.

Agents arrested Daniel Ceballos, the mayor of the western city of San Cristóbal, where demonstrations against the government began in early February. The city has become the site of the fiercest showdowns between street protesters and security forces, even as the size of demonstrations decline and show signs of fatigue in other places like the capital, Caracas.

"It's an act of justice against a mayor, who not only stopped complying with his obligations under the law and constitution, but facilitated and helped all the irrational violence in San Cristóbal," Interior Minister Miguel Rodríguez said on state television, announcing the arrest. He said Mr. Ceballos would be charged in court.

Mr. Ceballos "has nothing to hide," his lawyer, Ana Leonor Acosta, said in a statement put out by the mayor's political party, Popular Will. The party condemned the arrest as a "kidnapping." They said he was taken away by several armed officials with their faces covered, on unclear charges, as he was taking part in a meeting at a hotel in Caracas. The party called it an "arbitrary" action and said that it followed a series of arrest orders put out for officials of the political movement.

Analysts say the arrest could inflame the opposition and breathe new life into the protest movement, which has claimed about 30 lives. Rights groups say the majority of the victims have been demonstrators killed at the hands of police and pro-government forces.

But security forces, too, have suffered casualties. On Wednesday, the attorney general's office said it was investigating the death of a 23-year-old National Guardsman, who was shot and killed while breaking up a protest outside of a military university in San Cristóbal.

Mr. Ceballos is the second high-profile opposition politician to be jailed for allegedly inciting the civil unrest gripping the country. Last month, Leopoldo López, another top opposition official, was arrested and remains in a military prison for allegedly inciting the protests. Critics say Mr. Lopez's detention is an attempt by Mr. Maduro's regime to reverse the antigovernment movement.

"What does the government want with the fascist detention of San Cristóbal Mayor Daniel Ceballos, peace or war?" opposition leader Henrique Capriles, said in a message on Twitter. He warned that the decision would intensify the conflict and accused Mr. Maduro of wanting "more confrontation and to promote violence in the whole country."

On Tuesday the National Assembly, dominated by Mr. Maduro's Socialist Party, requested the attorney general's office strip opposition congresswoman María Corina Machado of parliamentary immunity to begin an investigation of her alleged involvement in inciting the recent violence.

Ms. Machado has been among the most vocal critics of the government, calling for Mr. Maduro's immediate exit and pushing for international condemnation of the Venezuelan government's crackdown. On Friday, Ms. Machado is scheduled to speak at the Organization of American States in Washington.

Protests began in the western state of Tachira last month as students voiced frustration with Venezuela's rampant crime problem, but the movement has since grown to address what the opposition says is the government's economic mismanagement, which has resulted in an inflation rate approaching 60% and widespread shortages of food and basic goods.

A parking attendant at the hotel said Mr. Ceballos was whisked away by four to six men in dark clothing.

In the upscale Caracas districts of Altamira and Chacao, news of Mr. Ceballos's arrest sparked an immediate reaction, with residents marching and banging on pots and pans, a comment form of protest in Latin America.

"What is he accused of? Why is he arrested? From what I can tell his only crime is thinking differently from the government," said a resident, Roger Vargas. "If the government keeps tightening the noose, there won't be peace in this country."

Mr. Rodríguez, the interior minister, said Mr. Ceballos' detention would be a step toward restoring calm and normalcy in the country.

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